McDonald's reveals details of recyclable Olympic restaurants
McDonald's has released advance details of its flagship Olympic Park restaurant for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
A world-first for McDonald's in regard to sustainability, the restaurant is designed to be reusable and recyclable after the Games. It brings together, in one structure, some of the best innovations developed by McDonald's during the last five years.
Jill McDonald, CEO, McDonald's UK, said: "London 2012 is set to be the most sustainable Games ever hosted and this ambition inspired us not only to fulfil our role as Official Restaurant in the catering operation behind the event, but also to bind sustainability into the heart of our state-of-the-art Olympic Park restaurants.
"Our flagship restaurant features many of the innovations that have fuelled our transformation during the last five years to improve the customer experience and increase the efficiency of our business operations. We'll be serving the broadest menu we've ever provided at an Olympic Games, thanks to the continued evolution of our menu, our longstanding British supply chain, and the technology we have in place to handle the highly complex Olympic catering challenge."
Inspired by LOCOG's vision to make London 2012 the most sustainable Games possible, McDonald's spent three years planning the design and structure of the restaurant to ensure it would create a contemporary and welcoming atmosphere for customers, with minimum impact on the environment.
After the Games, 75 per cent of the restaurant will be reused and almost everything else will be recycled, with all of the furniture and equipment going to McDonald's UK restaurant estate.
With about 15 new restaurants planned to open during the next 12 months and McDonald's major restaurant redesign programme on schedule for completion by the end of this year, every reusable fixture and piece of equipment will be used again after the Games.
The innovations at the flagship Olympic Park restaurant include express lanes with hand-held order taking and contactless payment, energy-efficient kitchen equipment and water-saving technology. All used cooking oil from the restaurant will be recycled into the special blend of biodiesel that fuels more than half of its UK delivery trucks.
McDonald's will staff this flagship restaurant with 500 employees from its 2,000 McDonald's Olympic Champion Crew - its top-performing employees selected through a nationwide competition to work at the Games.
The central flagship restaurant is one of McDonald's four Olympic Park restaurants, which have all been designed with sustainability at their core.
By Lisa Jenkins
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